I've now discovered that Essendon won't be seeing FTTC installed (not at least those on Potters Bar exchange) - BT have said their formula does not make it worthwhile (currently). They take into account the possible uptake, technical difficulty, and the speed increase over the old ADSL.

There is some (feasible) web rumour that the current roll-out concentrates on easy gains in areas close to the exchange who are served by cable companies. BT can then compete with cable companies and bring people "back to BT".

The downside of that being the more rural, difficult areas who are already poorly (if at all) served by ADSL and have no cable companies will still endure the world wide wait, whilst paying the same price as people enjoying quicker speeds.

So wonder what this means for Brookmans Park? Has anyone got definite confirmation the BT FTTC will be deployed?

I can see BT are unlikely to retired on the profits of fibring up Essendon, Wildhill and Woodside but that doesn't make it right though

Be really nice if that were true, but sadly it's not. Like you I guessed everyone on the exchange would benefit, but that's not the case.

They have to install new cabinets adjacent to the current ones, run fibre from the exchange out to them, install remote DSLAMs and find local power. I doubt any of this is cheap and they want a return, so they're likely to put them where they can make that return. Take a look at the "Project Information" PDF on this planning request for WGC and you'll see what's involved, not a small job.

As I said in my original, those in Essendon on 01707 6xxxxx are served from Potters Bar exchange and will not be getting FTTC.

Perhaps someone in BP village who is on BT could send the mods a message like I did and you will then know for sure if you are included in the roll out - See Here for how. They will need your phone number and postcode, and will tell you what cabinet you're connected to and whether it will be included in the fibre roll-out.

Confirms the South of Essendon won't be done, nor Wildhill, nor most of the properties up Kentish Lane - some 142 properties served by PCP44 are not getting fibre

On the upside, I put a few Brookmans Park village postcodes in and they came back with a speed increase of around 7 times the current copper speed (AL9 7Q* for example). Take a look-see if you're included and what the speed uplift is likely to be. I used "Filter On" and put "Postcode" "Starts With" and put in AL97Q

The percentage is the number of lines from the postcode that go into the cabinet shown - one postcode may be connected to two cabinets and perhaps only one cabinet will get done. The uplift is a marketing figure, it's probably one of the indicators they use to decide who gets it and who doesn't, could be inaccurate depends how far you are from the cabinet.

It's nice to finally have the yes/no answer rather than assuming you'll get it. The online data only has those who will get it, the full CSV's have all postcodes, even those who won't get it - the full CSV's are here - needs a recent version of excel to open as they are too large, although they're CSVs so can be opened in other tools or use the DOS find utility to search for what you want. There are some AL9 7's who won't get it but they're more over towards Welham Green (AL9 7TR,B,J,U,P,H,G,Y,S,T,D,X all served by Cabinet 39 on Potters Bar exchange).

Midnight

Indeed we shall see, BrookyP. The schedule is for June this year and no doubt BT are going to have a lot of testing to do (or maybe not!). So next month would seem a bit quick. Nevertheless I'll be so glad to move off the broadband hard shoulder.

BT advise that:Even when a exchange has been upgraded with BT Infinity and Your local street cabinet has been updated with fibre optic cables, it's still possible that some people in the area will still not be able to get it on their line.

This could be because: Your phone line may be connected directly to the telephone exchange and not to a local street cabinet.Your line may be too far from the local street cabinet to have a stable BT Infinity service.Your home may not be suitable for fibre optic cables.Your landlord may not have agreed to the fibre infrastructure being provided in your building (for example if you live in a flat).

The BT availability checker at www.bt.com/infinity has the latest details about whether you can get BT Infinity on your line. It'll also tell you what broadband speeds your line can support. If you can't get BT Infinity now, then you can register your interest and BT will we'll tell you when you can.

I wonder if locals have registered their interest and been told when they might get it?

Midnight

I pretty much understood that FTTC would be what most people will get with copper from the cabinet to the house. Unless of course you get lucky and have fibre wired into the house already. There was talk of taking fibre to the pole and dropping onto the premises from there but I doubt that'll be what we'll see for ages. Anyway, the promise of maybe 40Mbps over the last bit of copper has got to be a huge step up from the stuttering 2.5Mbps I get just 50m from the (old) cabinet. Roll on June.

BT's up to 40Mbps Infinity services use 'fibre to the cabinet' (FTTC). This means that BT is replacing the main part of the copper wire network - between the main broadband exchange and your local telephone cabinet - with high-quality fibre. However, the wire between your local cabinet and your home will still be copper, so your broadband signal may still deteriorate over the last part of the journey. This means that, although you're likely to get closer to the advertised speed since your broadband signal will be partly carried over fibre, it's possible the maximum speed you will be able to get at your address may still be affected by your distance from the local cabinet. However, unlike your main broadband exchange - which is fixed in location - it is possible for BT to install extra local cabinets to keep the length of copper wire used to a minimum.

Spoke to the Openreach guys in Calder yesterday. They ran into a "blockage" at the junction of the 2 Calders, may need to excavate to sort it out and get the new fibre optic cable through.

Also said that they may have to build another "Green Box" at that junction.

He also asked me if Calder was a "private" (unadopted road), to which I replied yes. He winced a bit and said that could be a problem. He did not expand, maybe to do with digging it up?

Lastly, the fibre optic cables will run from the Potters Bar exchange to the "green boxes", but from there to and into our houses will still be the good old copper stuff. Apparently too expensive to run fibre optic into everyones house. So a hybrid solution to modern technology.

Lastly, the fibre optic cables will run from the Potters Bar exchange to the "green boxes", but from there to and into our houses will still be the good old copper stuff. Apparently too expensive to run fibre optic into everyones house. So a hybrid solution to modern technology.

There is a conduit down Moffats for cable with branches to houses from inspection boxes on the pavement. Wonder if they know?

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Apparently its not just gettimg the fibre optic to the house, but the house will also have to be re-wired internally, ie every telephone point would have to be re-wired and replaced. Thats where the cost comes in.